New script: The rise and fall of Overwatch! (Patreon)

Yes, I know Overwatch isn't dead - or completely fallen - yet.. buuuut I don't think anyone can argue that it's not doing too well right now

HEY there, I'm Aci and oh boy there's a lot to talk about here...

I can already see the comments: "Aci wdym Overwatch isnt dead yet", "But aci they're making Overwatch 2", "but aciii" xD Yes, but I don't think that's going to change anything

Let's just quickly go over how it all started

Somewhere in early 2015, Jeff Kaplan pitched his idea of a hero shooter to his bosses.

And apparently it was good enough, because in October, the Overwatch Beta started. And then, in 2016, the game got released.

Basically in Overwatch you can choose from a multitude of different characters that all feel unique to push or hold back a payload or to defend or attack a point. 

It instantly blew up and had 7 MILLION players in the first week.

Back then, Blizzard was one of the most respected game developers - yeah I know it's hard to believe xD

But they created World of Warcraft, Heartstone, Diablo and so many other things that people loved, and didn't really screw up that much.. yet

So players loved this game and were sure it was headed in a great direction because.. it's Blizzard! I mean, they can't screw this up, right?

Overwatch started with 12 heroes, most of them characters meant to deal damage. There were a few different maps, a few different gamemodes aaand that's basically it.

Still, players loved it. And over time, more characters, maps, game modes and so on were added.

Blizzard released a new hero around every 4 months, which gave you a lot new ways to play the game and kept it fresh.

But, like with any competetive game, people got *really* invested in it and complained about balance, certain heroes being too strong, whatever, ALL the time

And honestly, the devs didn't really do a good job at adressing this.

Instead of listening to the well thought out posts and suggestions, they listened to whoever screamed the loudest.

Still, most people were overall pretty happy with the game for a couple of years.

After a while though.. uhhh not so much xD

The developers changed a few major things about the game, reworking heroes, forcing people to run 2 of each role, and so on.

Not only that, but they started the Overwatch League. A competetive Esports scene they focused - in my opinion - way too much on.

Instead of balancing the game around the 90% of players in the lower ranks, they now changed it to be fair for the few top players.

And well, that's of course not great for casuals xD

Also, hosting a massive esports league of course also drains resources from the company, that's NOT going towards the game.

Something else we didn't know back then, development of Overwatch 2 slowly started, which means there was less and less new content coming out.

The same recycled events, less new heroes and balance updates - twitter was going crazy xD

So, this is where it started going wrong..

Now, I don't think Overwatch has "fallen" yet, but I do think it's currently fallING

They're focusing too much on the esports scene and leaving behind the majority of their playerbase.

They're putting all their effort into Overwatch 2, which is fine, but.. there hasn't been a hero in. over. a. year!

Like, come on, that's not how you keep a community active. I think if you worked on a hero or two in that year, maybe Overwatch 2 would be delayed by a few months. 

And if that's the price for keeping your community happy and active.. I think it's worth it

Oh yeah, in Overwatch 2 they're changing the standard gamemodes from 6v6 to 5v5 and completely re-balancing all of the roles. And this is just my opinion, but I don't like the direction they're taking it.

They're changing all the tanks into bruisers - basically DPS with more health - removing almost all stuns, and just generally changing the pace of the game to be a lot quicker. 

I enjoy slow fights with lots of coordination, strategy, healing, resurrections, whatever. 20 second fights are just SUPER boring to me and it seems like- that's what they're going for.

Also of course, existing friend groups will have a hard time because, well one of them can't play anymore.

Now let's talk about the elephant in the room xD

Uh yeah they kinda screwed up big time.. just last month

So in case you didn't know, there were MAJOR sexism allegations against Blizzard, sexua- uhhh VERY bad allegations against employees that I can't mention because Youtube and more

It got to a point where they're even changing the NAME of one of the heroes in the game that they named after an employee that was involved in this, so Jesse Mcree will have a different name very soon.

This was so bad, that many people took a day off of streaming Overwatch on Twitch or playing Overwatch in general.

And of course a lot of people also uninstalled the game.

So that's basically where we're at right now

uh, can Blizzard make a comeback? Of course

Do I think they will? Somehow, I doubt it xD

But, what do you think? Lemme know in the comments down below!

If you want some fancy merch, I got some; and huge shoutout to my awesome Supporters

Callum Whalley, CapitalClyde, Jeff the Sea Dragon, Ripe Cucumber, Tony House and Wynog!

But for now thank you VERY much for watching, I really hope you enjoyed it, and I'll SEA you next time!

Goooood BYEEEEEE!